KODÁLY

All elementary music teachers in Hays CISD are trained in the Kodály ("KOH-dye") method. It is named after Hungarian musicologist, educator, and composer Zoltán Kodály  The Kodály Method is an experienced-based music learning approach that teaches children to love music by understanding how it works. It focuses on singing as a fundamental form of music making. Songs taught are often songs from children's own culture--folk music. Music lessons take children from sound to symbol. One unit/element takes five lessons to complete. This process is standard for K-5.

1. Kinesthetic Lesson: Preparing to learn the new element by moving to it. If the element is melodic, students engage in movement activities associated with pitch (the highness or lowness of a sound) or rhythm (how many sounds on a beat, or how long a sound is). 

2. Aural Lesson: Learn the new element by listening to and analyzing the sounds involved, describing pitch, how many beats, number of sounds, length of sounds, etc.

3. Visual Lesson: Learn the new element by creating a visual that represents what the child felt and heard. 

4. Label the Sound: Review all experiences and give the new element a name. 

5. Present Notation: Take all that's been learned and apply it to what it really looks like. Listen for it and use it. Read it in other songs, write it on your own, and improvise with it.